The distance isn't very much, really, just 12 inches. And on the court it looks even smaller.

So it shouldn't be surprising that college basketball moving its 3-point line back a foot, from 19 feet, 9 inches to 20-9, has not had a major impact.

Nationally, the average number of attempts per team from beyond the arc is down .71 from last season's record 19.07. But that 18.36 is virtually the same norm (18.33) as just four years ago.

Teams are averaging making 6.30 3-pointers, down .42 from last season's record 6.72, but again almost identical to the numbers from 2005.

One does have to go back to 1998-99 to find a shooting percentage as low as this season's .343, down from .352 last season, which was the best since 1992-93.

Tulane Coach Dave Dickerson said he thinks he knows the reason why the changes have been relatively insignificant.

"All guards want to go to the NBA, so they're shooting from another foot or two behind the new line," he said. "We've got three guys in our league who are going to be drafted. You won't see them shooting from anywhere near the line."

Dickerson and the Green Wave (9-11, 3-4 Conference USA) will encounter one of those three -- Alabama-Birmingham's Robert Vaden -- tonight in Birmingham, Ala.

Vaden, a 6-foot-5 senior, leads C-USA and is No. 14 nationally with 3.4 made 3-pointers per game. His 206 attempts in 22 games (9.4 per game) are the second most in the country.

And, as Dickerson said, Vaden isn't bothered by the new line.

"I usually shoot from pretty far behind the line, so I never have to worry where it is," said Vaden, who averages 18.7 points for the Blazers (14-8, 4-3). "If you're going to play at the next level, you've got to be able to hit it from back there and what matters most is getting yourself open."

Another top 3-point shooter from C-USA, Central Florida's Jermaine Taylor, has much the same attitude.

"I worked on my (NBA range) 3-point shot all summer," said Taylor, who was 5-of-10 on 3-point attempts in the Golden Knights' 79-74 overtime victory against Tulane last Saturday. "So the new line doesn't make any difference to me. I kind of like to back it up anyway."

Central Florida Coach Kirk Speraw said the new line has him limiting attempts by marginal shooters.

"The players you had who could only make it with their toes on the old line, they're not shooting those kinds of shots," he said. "But it has no effect on the good shooters. If anything, it affects the passing ability into the post."

Tulane point guard Kevin Sims says he has noticed that.

"There's more spacing on the court," he said. "It's easier to make that drive because people are out defending the new line instead of the old one."

Sims is Tulane's leader in 3-pointers attempted (87) and made (29), followed by Eric Vianney, who is 24-of-69, including a school-record 5-for-5 effort in one game.

Overall, the Green Wave is attempting more 3-pointers this season (16.30 per game vs. 14.25 in 2007-08) and making more (5.00 vs. 4.56), which Dickerson said is more of a reflection of personnel differences from last season when forward David Gomez, the team's leading scorer, attempted only 22 3-pointers.

The Green Wave's 3-point shooting percentage is down from .320 to .307, but that includes an 0-for-13 game against Southern Miss.

"Moving the line has had minimal effect on us," Dickerson said. "In fact, I'm pleasantly surprised that it's made no change on our players mentally."

Dickerson said attitudes about the 3-point shot have changed since it was first instituted for the 1986-87 season when he was a sophomore at Maryland.

That season teams averaged 9.2 3-point attempts per game, making 3.5.

"A lot of coaches were really reluctant to shoot the 3 back then," he said. "Nobody could imagine you taking 18 or 20 every night out."

The new college distance was designed less to decrease 3-point shooting as it was to free up more space inside the arc -- and, as Sims said, it has done so.

There has been talk about moving the college line to the new international distance of 22-2 if 20-9 proves not to have the desired effect, but Dickerson said he is happy with the status quo.

"The 3-point basket has been good for college basketball," he said. "But to move it further back would really diminish the effectiveness of it. The new distance has given us some more open looks, which is good. But it's a lot more important to be able to make 'em than just being able to take 'em."